Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(13)
“How lovely, Jasper,” Asha said, her tone expressing the exact opposite sentiment. “Now, Zara, what were your first thoughts about Caleb?” Asha leaned forward, as if she couldn’t bear to miss a single syllable of the answer.
She gulped, not sure where to start. “My first thought was that he’s huge, because he’s super tall. He seemed nice enough, but I’m withholding judgment for now.”
Uptight? Her? Yes, she totally sounded like she was wrapped tighter than a slice of wedding cake about to be put in the freezer, but she could live with that, and it was part of the plan they’d developed. He would be the all-in admirer—all the better to help his image—and she’d be the yeah-not-gonna-happen person based in reality because come on, it was not gonna happen. The man professed to hate mashed potatoes while she’d never met a starch she didn’t immediately love. He was an über-rich athlete while she was busting ass with her Etsy miniatures store to make ends meet. He was big, imposing, and cocky. She was… Well, she was short, freckled, and sarcastic. Anyway, she had things she wanted to do with her life, and a six-two hockey player wasn’t one of them.
Asha gave her a come-on-it’s-just-us-girls look. “Did you think he was cute?”
Heat smacked Zara in both cheeks. Having this conversation while sitting next to the person in question wasn’t awkward at all. Resisting the urge to look up and double-check that he was still there, since he’d been keeping his mouth shut after they’d walked in, she took a deep breath and tried to think of something to say.
“‘Cute’ wouldn’t be the word I would use.” Overwhelming? Solid? Teasing? The perfect amount of unusually attractive because his smirk and crooked nose edged him from the land of cute and into oh-my-yes territory? “But there’s something about him that makes you take notice.”
“Are you kidding?” Britany let out a loud scoff. “He’s a professional athlete in his prime. Of course she thought he was handsome.”
Jasper stiffened and responded in a tone of high offense. “I’m pretty sure my girl knows what she means.” He turned to face the camera. “After all, she did attend the Ryerson’s Academy for Learning, which offers all sorts of courses on a wide variety of subjects for the curious student at a reasonable price.”
Next to her, Caleb tried to cover his laugh with a cough. She glared up at him. This was not funny. Her “date,” however, seemed to disagree. He had his lips pressed together, and not a sound escaped, but his shoulder shaking gave him away. They made eye contact, and despite her better judgment of the direness of the situation, her mouth twitched.
She fought it, but the longer she looked at him while her dad continued to talk about the tutor she’d gone to only once in high school for SAT test prep, the harder it became to ignore the urge to giggle. The whole situation was ridiculous. Pretty soon her dad would be endorsing her former preschool and Anchovy’s groomer.
“Not saying she doesn’t,” Britany continued, her voice drowning out Jasper’s #SponCon, “but my Caleb is a total catch for anyone.”
“Which is why he, a professional athlete with buckets of money and women throwing themselves at him, has to go on Bramble,” Jasper said, bringing the drama that, no doubt, he figured this reality TV needed.
Britany shot Jasper a look that would have sent most of the population running. “He had his reasons.”
Caleb froze beside her, laughter draining from him and replaced by a tension that radiated out like the aftershocks of an atom bomb.
“Yes, those reasons,” Asha said, a gotcha gleam in her eyes as she turned to face Caleb. “Let’s chat about those.”
Oh. Shit.
…
“So about that viral video,” the host said, glancing up from her notes with a decidedly less-than-friendly smile on her face. “Your teammates called women ‘puck bunnies’ and declared their prowess with them positively impacted their game. You sat silently as they did so. That fact was not taken well by the women of Harbor City.”
Caleb’s lungs stopped functioning for a second, and cold, clammy beads of sweat made his palms damp. If there was one thing in the world he could do, it would be to take back that moment of trying to fit in with his teammates—make them see him as another one of the guys instead of the weirdo whose lips moved when he read email on the back of the plane during road trips.
“I was an asshole.” The declaration came out before his brain had a chance to check it, but it wasn’t wrong. “Sorry, forgot about being on TV there for a second. I was a jerk and I should have shut that talk down. I’m sorry.”
“Is that what you told your date, Zara, about it?” Asha asked, going in for the kill.
He fought to keep the white noise in his head from getting any louder as his anxiety ratcheted up. His nerves were jumping like popcorn, and it must have been obvious as hell because Zara angled her right leg just enough that it pressed against his, a silent signal that he wasn’t alone. It was just enough to slow the spinning whirl inside his head and help him ease back against the couch.
Right as Asha opened her mouth, no doubt to ask a follow-up question, Zara started talking. “I didn’t know anything about the video beforehand, but he was up-front with me about it on our first date and I did look it up after I got home.” Zara pulled a face, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “It definitely was not a good look.”